What is Switchgear and Why Do We Need It?
“Switchgear is a general term covering switching devices and their combination with associated control, measuring, protective and regulative equipment, also assemblies of such devices and equipment with associated interconnections, accessories, enclosures, and supporting structures.” -IEC
by Gaurav Joshi
What is Switchgear?
Let’s understand switchgear with a simple example. Imagine there is a fault in the system. This fault must be cleared by the circuit breaker. But the circuit breaker is not capable of sensing this abnormal condition (fault condition) on its own. So, in order to sense the faulty condition, we need a device called “Relay”. Relay senses the abnormal condition and gives a signal to the circuit breaker to trip or open. But the problem with the relay is that they are small and not able to accept the high current or voltage that is there in the system. They operate on much lower values of current and voltage. And hence, to fulfill this condition we need to have an instrument transformer (voltage/current transformer) which will lower the value of current/voltage and offers the input to relay (refer below figure for more clarity).
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